Perspective taking and adolescent sex offenders: From developmental theory to clinical practice Original Research Article

Clinical child researchers and practitioners face increasing pressure to more fully incorporate developmental findings and principles into their work. In describing a developmental approach to the assessment and treatment of perspective-taking deficits in adolescent sex offenders, we discuss some of the benefits and difficulties inherent in such integrative efforts. Following an overview of the clinical literature on juvenile sexual offending that focuses on the roles of perspective taking and empathy, we turn to a review of the developmental literature. This literature, particularly the model proposed by Selman, provides a rich conceptual foundation for understanding the relationship between perspective-taking skills and sexual offenses. We then describe our efforts to incorporate this model into clinical practice. The article concludes with an illustrative case example.